Banker

Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Banker shopping experience:

1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Banker offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Banker at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.

2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Banker? Wrong! If the Banker is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about Banker then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Banker? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Banker and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Banker wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your Banker then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Banker site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about Banker, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your Banker, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.

A bank is a commercial or state institution that provides financial services, including issuing money in various forms, receiving deposit account of money, lending money and processing transactions and the creating of credit. A commercial bank accepts deposits from customers and in turn makes loans, even in excess of the deposits; a process known as fractional-reserve banking. Some banks (called Banks of issue) issue banknotes as legal tender. Many banks offer ancillary financial services to make additional profit; for example, most banks also rent safe deposit boxes in their branches.

Currently in most jurisdictions commercial banks are regulated and require permission to operate. Operational authority is granted by bank regulatory authorities which provides rights to conduct the most fundamental banking services such as accepting deposits and making loans. A commercial bank is usually defined as an institution that both accepts deposits and makes loans; there are also financial institutions that provide selected banking services without meeting the legal definition of a bank.

Banks have influenced economies and politics for centuries. Historically, the primary purpose of a bank was to provide loans to trading companies. Banks provided funds to allow businesses to purchase inventory, and collected those funds back with interest when the goods were sold. For centuries, the banking industry only dealt with businesses, not consumers. Commercial lending today is a very intense activity, with banks carefully analysing the financial condition of their business clients to determine the level of risk in each loan transaction. Banking services have expanded to include services directed at individuals, and risk in these much smaller transactions are pooled.

A bank generates a profit from the differential between the level of interest it pays for deposits and other sources of funds, and the level of interest it charges in its lending activities. This difference is referred to as the spread between the cost of funds and the loan interest rate. Historically, profitability from lending activities has been cyclic and dependent on the needs and strengths of loan customers. In recent history, investors have demanded a more stable revenue stream and banks have therefore placed more emphasis on transaction fees, primarily loan fees but also including service charges on array of deposit activities and ancillary services (international banking, foreign exchange, insurance, investments, wire transfers, etc.). However, lending activities still provide the bulk of a commercial bank's income.

The name bank derives from the Italian language word banco "desk/bench", used during the Renaissance by Florence bankers, who used to make their transactions above a desk covered by a green tablecloth.However, there are traces of banking activity even in ancient times.

Services typically offered by banks Although the basic type of services offered by a bank depends upon the type of bank and the country, services provided usually include:

Taking deposits from their customers and issuing current (UK) or checking (US) accounts and savings accounts to individuals and businesses
Extending loans to individuals and businesses
Cashing cheques
Facilitating money transactions such as wire transfers and cashier's checks
Issuing credit cards, ATM cards, and debit cards
Storing valuables, particularly in a safe deposit box
Cashing and distributing bank rolls
Consumer & commercial Financial advice services
Pension & retirement planning

Financial transactions can be performed through many different Channel (marketing):

A branch, banking centre or financial centre is a retail location where a bank or financial institution offers a wide array of face to face service to its customers

Automatic teller machine is a computerised telecommunications device that provides a financial institution's customers a method of financial transactions in a public space without the need for a human clerk or bank teller

Mail is part of the postal system which itself is a system wherein written documents typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages containing other matter, are delivered to destinations around the world

Telephone banking is a service provided by a financial institution which allows its customers to perform transactions over the telephone

Online banking is a term used for performing transactions, payments etc. over the Internet through a bank, credit union or building society's secure website

Types of banks Banks' activities can be divided into retail banking, dealing directly with individuals and small businesses; business banking, providing services to mid-market business; corporate banking, directed at large business entities; private banking, providing wealth management services to High Net Worth Individuals and families; and investment banking, relating to activities on the financial markets. Most banks are profit-making, private enterprises. However, some are owned by government, or are non-profits.

Central banks are non-commercial bodies or government agencies often charged with controlling interest rates and money supply across the whole economy. They generally provide liquidity to the banking system and act as Lender of last resort in event of a crisis.

Types of retail banks

Commercial bank: the term used for a normal bank to distinguish it from an investment bank. After the Great Depression, the U.S. Congress required that banks only engage in banking activities, whereas investment banks were limited to capital market activities. Since the two no longer have to be under separate ownership, some use the term "commercial bank" to refer to a bank or a division of a bank that mostly deals with deposits and loans from corporations or large businesses.
Community Banks: locally operated financial institutions that empower employees to make local decisions to serve their customers and the partners
Community development banks: regulated banks that provide financial services and credit to underserved markets or populations.
Postal savings banks: savings banks associated with national postal systems.
Private banks: manage the assets of high net worth individuals.
Offshore banks: banks located in jurisdictions with low taxation and regulation. Many offshore banks are essentially private banks.
Savings bank: in Europe, savings banks take their roots in the 19th or sometimes even 18th century. Their original objective was to provide easily accessible savings products to all strata of the population. In some countries, savings banks were created on public initiative, while in others socially committed individuals created foundations to put in place the necessary infrastructure. Nowadays, European savings banks have kept their focus on retail banking: payments, savings products, credits and insurances for individuals or small and medium-sized enterprises. Apart from this retail focus, they also differ from commercial banks by their broadly decentralised distribution network, providing local and regional outreach and by their socially responsible approach to business and society.
Building societies and Landesbanks: conduct retail banking.
Ethical banks: banks that prioritize the transparency of all operations and make only what they consider to be socially-responsible investments.

Types of investment banks

Investment banks "underwrite" (guarantee the sale of) stock and bond issues, trade for their own accounts, make markets, and advise corporations on capital markets activities such as mergers and acquisitions.
Merchant banks were traditionally banks which engaged in trade financing. The modern definition, however, refers to banks which provide capital to firms in the form of shares rather than loans. Unlike Venture capital firms, they tend not to invest in new companies.

Both combined

Universal banks, more commonly known as a financial services company, engage in several of these activities. For example, First Bank (a very large bank) is involved in commercial and retail lending, and its subsidiaries in tax-havens offer offshore banking services to customers in other countries. Other large financial institutions are similarly diversified and engage in multiple activities. In Europe and Asia, big banks are very diversified groups that, among other services, also distribute insurance, hence the term bancassurance is the term used to describe the sale of insurance products in a bank. The word is a combination of "banque or bank" and "assurance" signifying that both banking and insurance are provided by the same corporate entity.

Other types of banks Islamic banking

Islamic banks adhere to the concepts of Sharia. Islamic banking revolves around several well established concepts which are based on Islamic canons. Since the concept of interest is forbidden in Islam, all banking activities must avoid interest. Instead of interest, the bank earns profit (mark-up) and fees on financing facilities that it extends to the customers. Also, deposit makers earn a share of the bank’s profit as opposed to a predetermined interest.

Banks in the economy Role in the money supply A bank raises funds by attracting deposits, borrowing money in the inter-bank market, or issuing financial instruments in the money market or a capital market. The bank then lends out most of these funds to borrowers.

However, it would not be prudent for a bank to lend out all of its balance sheet. It must keep a certain proportion of its funds in reserve so that it can repay depositors who withdraw their deposits. Bank reserves are typically kept in the form of a deposit with a central bank. This behaviour is called fractional-reserve banking and it is a central issue of monetary policy. Note that under Basel I (and the new round of Basel II), banks no longer keep deposits with central banks, but must maintain defined capital ratios.

Size of global banking industry Worldwide assets of the largest 1,000 banks grew 15.5% in 2005 to reach a record $60.5 trillion. This follows a 19.3% increase in the previous year. EU banks held the largest share, 50% at the end of 2005, up from 38% a decade earlier. The growth in Europe’s share was mostly at the expense of Japanese banks whose share more than halved during this period from 33% to 13%. The share of US banks also rose, from 10% to 14%. Most of the remainder was from other Asian and European countries.

The US had by far the most banks (7,540 at end-2005) and branches (75,000) in the world. The large number of banks in the US is an indicator of its geography and regulatory structure, resulting in a large number of small to medium sized institutions in its banking system. Japan had 129 banks and 12,000 branches. In 2004, Germany, France, and Italy had more than 30,000 branches each—more than double the 15,000 branches in the UK. chart 28, page 15

Bank crisis Banks are susceptible to many forms of risk which have triggered occasional systemic crises. Risks include liquidity risk (the risk that many depositors will request withdrawals beyond available funds), credit risk (the risk that those who owe money to the bank will not repay), and interest rate risk (the risk that the bank will become unprofitable if rising interest rates force it to pay relatively more on its deposits than it receives on its loans), among others.

Banking crises have developed many times throughout history when one or more risks materialize for a banking sector as a whole. Prominent examples include the U.S. Savings and Loan crisis in 1980s and early 1990s, the Japanese banking crisis during the 1990s, the bank run that occurred during the Great Depression, and the recent liquidation by the central Bank of Nigeria, where about 25 banks were liquidated.

Challenges within the banking industry The banking industry is a highly regulated industry with detailed and focused regulators. All banks with FDIC-insured deposits have the FDIC as a regulator; however, for examinations, the Federal Reserve is the primary federal regulator for Fed-member state banks; the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) is the primary federal regulator for national banks; and the Office of Thrift Supervision, or OTS, is the primary federal regulator for thrifts. State non-member banks are examined by the state agencies as well as the FDIC. National banks have one primary regulator—the OCC.

Each regulatory agency has their own set of rules and regulations to which banks and thrifts must adhere.

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) was established in 1979 as a formal interagency body empowered to prescribe uniform principles, standards, and report forms for the federal examination of financial institutions. Although the FFIEC has resulted in a greater degree of regulatory consistency between the agencies, the rules and regulations are constantly changing.

In addition to changing regulations, changes in the industry have led to consolidations within the Federal Reserve, FDIC, OTS and OCC. Offices have been closed, supervisory regions have been merged, staff levels have been reduced and budgets have been cut. The remaining regulators face an increased burden with increased workload and more banks per regulator. While banks struggle to keep up with the changes in the regulatory environment, regulators struggle to manage their workload and effectively regulate their banks. The impact of these changes is that banks are receiving less hands-on assessment by the regulators, less time spent with each institution, and the potential for more problems slipping through the cracks, potentially resulting in an overall increase in bank failures across the United States.

The changing economic environment has a significant impact on banks and thrifts as they struggle to effectively manage their interest rate spread in the face of low rates on loans, rate competition for deposits and the general market changes, industry trends and economic fluctuations. It has been a challenge for banks to effectively set their growth strategies with the recent economic market. A rising interest rate environment may seem to help financial institutions, but the effect of the changes on consumers and businesses is not predictable and the challenge remains for banks to grow and effectively manage the spread to generate a return to their shareholders.

The management of the banks’ asset portfolios also remains a challenge in today’s economic environment. Loans are a bank’s primary asset category and when loan quality becomes suspect, the foundation of a bank is shaken to the core. While always an issue for banks, declining asset quality has become a big problem for financial institutions. There are several reasons for this, one of which is the lax attitude some banks have adopted because of the years of “good times.” The potential for this is exacerbated by the reduction in the regulatory oversight of banks and in some cases depth of management. Problems are more likely to go undetected, resulting in a significant impact on the bank when they are recognized. In addition, banks, like any business, struggle to cut costs and have consequently eliminated certain expenses, such as adequate employee training programs.

Banks also face a host of other challenges such as aging ownership groups. Across the country, many banks’ management teams and board of directors are aging. Banks also face ongoing pressure by shareholders, both public and private, to achieve earnings and growth projections. Regulators place added pressure on banks to manage the various categories of risk. Banking is also an extremely competitive industry. Competing in the financial services industry has become tougher with the entrance of such players as insurance agencies, credit unions, check cashing services, credit card companies, etc.

Regulation Bank regulations are a form of government regulation which subject banks to certain requirements, restrictions and guidelines, aiming to uphold the soundness and integrity of the financial system.The combination of the instability of banks as well as their important facilitating role in the economy led to banking being thoroughly regulated. The amount of capital a bank is required to hold is a function of the amount and quality of its assets. Major banks are subject to the Basel Capital Accord promulgated by the Bank for International Settlements. In addition, banks are usually required to purchase deposit insurance to make sure smaller investors are not wiped out in the event of a bank failure.

Another reason banks are thoroughly regulated is that ultimately, no government can allow the banking system to fail. There is almost always a lender of last resort—in the event of a liquidity crisis (where short term obligations exceed short term assets) some element of government will step in to lend banks enough money to avoid bankruptcy.

Public perceptions of banks In United States history, the National Bank was a major political issue during the presidency of Andrew Jackson. Jackson fought against the bank as a symbol of greed and profit-mongering, antithetical to the democratic ideals of the United States.

Currently, many people consider that various banking policies take advantage of customers. In Canada, for example, the New Democratic Party has called for the abolition of user fees for automated teller transactions. Other specific concerns are policies that permit banks to hold deposited funds for several days, to apply withdrawals before deposits or from greatest to least, which is most likely to cause the greatest overdraft, that allow backdating funds transfers and fee assessments, and that authorize electronic funds transfers despite an overdraft. Some have expressed concern about a systemic lack of bank accountability to the public in Canada.

In response to the perceived greed and socially-irresponsible all-for-the-profit attitude of banks, in the last few decades a new type of bank called ethical banks have emerged, which only make socially-responsible investments (for instance, no investment in the arms industry) and are transparent in all its operations.

In the US, credit unions have also gained popularity as an alternative financial resource for many consumers. Also, in various European countries, cooperative banks are regularly gaining market share in retail banking.

Profitability Large banks in the United States are some of the most profitable corporations, especially relative to the small market shares they have. This amount is even higher if one counts the credit divisions of companies like Ford, which are responsible for a large proportion of those companies' profits.

In the past 10 years in the United States, banks have taken many measures to ensure that they remain profitable while responding to ever-changing market conditions.First, this includes the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which allows banks again to merge with investment and insurance houses. Merging banking, investment, and insurance functions allows traditional banks to respond to increasing consumer demands for "one-stop shopping" by enabling cross-selling of products (which, the banks hope, will also increase profitability).Second, they have expanded the use of risk-based pricing from business lending to consumer lending, which means charging higher interest rates to those customers that are considered to be a higher credit risk and thus increased chance of default (finance) on loans. This helps to offset the losses from bad loans, lowers the price of loans to those who have better credit histories, and offers credit products to high risk customers who would otherwise been denied credit.Third, they have sought to increase the methods of payment processing available to the general public and business clients. These products include debit cards, pre-paid cards, smart-cards, and credit cards. These products make it easier for consumers to conveniently make transactions and smooth their consumption over time (in some countries with under-developed financial systems, it is still common to deal strictly in cash, including carrying suitcases filled with cash to purchase a home). However, with convenience there is also increased risk that consumers will mis-manage their financial resources and accumulate excessive debt. Banks make money from card products through interest payments and fees charged to consumers and transaction fees to companies that accept the cards.

The banking industry's main obstacles to increasing profits are existing regulatory burdens, new government regulation, and increasing competition from non-traditional financial institutions.

Bank size information Top ten banking groups in the world ranked by Shareholder equity ($m) The 2006 bank atlas was compiled from commercial banks’ annual reports and financial statements for 2006 and 2005.http://www.euromoney.com/page.asp?PageID=2050 Euromoney, Bank atlas: The world's biggest banks. List of the world's ten largest banks by Shareholder equity, 2006 Figures in U.S. dollars

{] || 112537 $mln|-| 2 || || JPMorgan Chase ] || 101224 $mln|-| 4 || || HSBC ] || 83281 $mln|-| 6 || || Crédit Agricole || 65137 $mln|-| 7 || || Royal Bank of Scotland Group ] || 56610 $mln|-| 9 || || Grupo Santander || 53640 $mln|-| 10 || || Mizuho Financial Group || 52243 $mln|}

Top ten banking groups in the world ranked by assets Figures in U.S. dollars, and as at end-2004http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6908408 The Economist, Thinking big, List of the world's ten largest banks by assets in 2004

{] || 1,861 billion|-| 2 || || UBS AG || 1,533 billion|-| 3 || || Citigroup ] || 1,296 billion|-| 5 || || Crédit Agricole || 1,243 billion|-| 6 || || BNP Paribas ] || 1,157 billion|-| 8 || || Deutsche Bank ] || 1,119 billion|-| 10 || || Bank of America || 1,110 billion|}

Top ten banks in the world ranked by market capitalisation Figures in U.S. dollars, and as at 26 July 2006http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=7226067 The Economist, On Citi's tail, List of the world's biggest banks, by market capitalisation, as at 26 June 2006

{] || 275 billion|-| 2 || || Industrial and Commercial Bank of China || 250 billion|-| 3 || || Bank of America ] || 200 billion|-| 5 || || JPMorgan Chase & Co. || 165 billion|-| 6 || || Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group || 145 billion|-| 7 || || Unicredit ] || 120 billion|-| 9 || || UBS AG || 110 billion|-| 10 || || Royal Bank of Scotland ] has a market cap of $104.7 billion.

Top ten bank holding companies in the world ranked by profit Figures in U.S. dollars, and as 2006

{] || 22.13 billion|-| 2 || || Bank of America ] || 22.086 billion|-| 4 || || JP Morgan Chase ] || 12.1 billion|-| 6 || || UBS AG || 9.79 billion|-| 7 || || Goldman Sachs ] || 8.48 billion|-| 9 || || Wachovia ] || 7.45 billion|}

Top ten banking groups in the world ranked by Tier 1 capital Figures in U.S. dollars, and as at end-2005http://www.economist.com/markets/indicators/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7141354 The Economist, The world's biggest banks, List of the world's ten largest banks by Tier 1 capital at the end of 2005

{] || 79 billion|-| 2 || || Citigroup ] || 73 billion|-| 4 || || JP Morgan Chase ] || 64 billion|-| 6 || || Crédit Agricole || 60 billion|-| 7 || || Royal Bank of Scotland ] || 40 billion|-| 9 || || Mizuho Financial Group ] || 38 billion|}

History of banking Main article: History of banking

Florentine banking — The Medicis and Pittis among others
Banknotes — Introduction of paper money
Bank of Amsterdam
Bank of Sweden — The rise of the national banks
Bank of England — The evolution of modern central banking policies
Bank of America — The invention of centralized check and payment processing technology
Swiss bank
United States Banking
History of Money and Banking in the United States by Murray N. Rothbard.

Imperial Bank of Persia — History of banking in the Middle-East
For Thomas Aquinas' discussion of usury, see Thought of Thomas Aquinas Part I

Further reading

Tiwari, Rajnish and Buse, Stephan (2006): , Hamburg University of Technology (TU Hamburg-Harburg)
Brunner, A., Decressin, J. / Hardy, D. / Kudela, B. (2004): Germany’s Three-Pillar Banking System – Cross-Country Perspectives in Europe, Occasional Paper, International Monetary Fund, Washington DC 2004.
Murray Rothbard / Richardson & Snyder. 1983. The Mystery of Banking .

Notes

A bank is a commercial or state institution that provides financial services, including issuing money in various forms, receiving deposit account of money, lending money and processing transactions and the creating of credit. A commercial bank accepts deposits from customers and in turn makes loans, even in excess of the deposits; a process known as fractional-reserve banking. Some banks (called Banks of issue) issue banknotes as legal tender. Many banks offer ancillary financial services to make additional profit; for example, most banks also rent safe deposit boxes in their branches.

Currently in most jurisdictions commercial banks are regulated and require permission to operate. Operational authority is granted by bank regulatory authorities which provides rights to conduct the most fundamental banking services such as accepting deposits and making loans. A commercial bank is usually defined as an institution that both accepts deposits and makes loans; there are also financial institutions that provide selected banking services without meeting the legal definition of a bank.

Banks have influenced economies and politics for centuries. Historically, the primary purpose of a bank was to provide loans to trading companies. Banks provided funds to allow businesses to purchase inventory, and collected those funds back with interest when the goods were sold. For centuries, the banking industry only dealt with businesses, not consumers. Commercial lending today is a very intense activity, with banks carefully analysing the financial condition of their business clients to determine the level of risk in each loan transaction. Banking services have expanded to include services directed at individuals, and risk in these much smaller transactions are pooled.

A bank generates a profit from the differential between the level of interest it pays for deposits and other sources of funds, and the level of interest it charges in its lending activities. This difference is referred to as the spread between the cost of funds and the loan interest rate. Historically, profitability from lending activities has been cyclic and dependent on the needs and strengths of loan customers. In recent history, investors have demanded a more stable revenue stream and banks have therefore placed more emphasis on transaction fees, primarily loan fees but also including service charges on array of deposit activities and ancillary services (international banking, foreign exchange, insurance, investments, wire transfers, etc.). However, lending activities still provide the bulk of a commercial bank's income.

The name bank derives from the Italian language word banco "desk/bench", used during the Renaissance by Florence bankers, who used to make their transactions above a desk covered by a green tablecloth.However, there are traces of banking activity even in ancient times.

Services typically offered by banks Although the basic type of services offered by a bank depends upon the type of bank and the country, services provided usually include:

Taking deposits from their customers and issuing current (UK) or checking (US) accounts and savings accounts to individuals and businesses
Extending loans to individuals and businesses
Cashing cheques
Facilitating money transactions such as wire transfers and cashier's checks
Issuing credit cards, ATM cards, and debit cards
Storing valuables, particularly in a safe deposit box
Cashing and distributing bank rolls
Consumer & commercial Financial advice services
Pension & retirement planning

Financial transactions can be performed through many different Channel (marketing):

A branch, banking centre or financial centre is a retail location where a bank or financial institution offers a wide array of face to face service to its customers

Automatic teller machine is a computerised telecommunications device that provides a financial institution's customers a method of financial transactions in a public space without the need for a human clerk or bank teller

Mail is part of the postal system which itself is a system wherein written documents typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages containing other matter, are delivered to destinations around the world

Telephone banking is a service provided by a financial institution which allows its customers to perform transactions over the telephone

Online banking is a term used for performing transactions, payments etc. over the Internet through a bank, credit union or building society's secure website

Commercial bank: the term used for a normal bank to distinguish it from an investment bank. After the Great Depression, the U.S. Congress required that banks only engage in banking activities, whereas investment banks were limited to capital market activities. Since the two no longer have to be under separate ownership, some use the term "commercial bank" to refer to a bank or a division of a bank that mostly deals with deposits and loans from corporations or large businesses.
Community Banks: locally operated financial institutions that empower employees to make local decisions to serve their customers and the partners
Community development banks: regulated banks that provide financial services and credit to underserved markets or populations.
Postal savings banks: savings banks associated with national postal systems.
Private banks: manage the assets of high net worth individuals.
Offshore banks: banks located in jurisdictions with low taxation and regulation. Many offshore banks are essentially private banks.
Savings bank: in Europe, savings banks take their roots in the 19th or sometimes even 18th century. Their original objective was to provide easily accessible savings products to all strata of the population. In some countries, savings banks were created on public initiative, while in others socially committed individuals created foundations to put in place the necessary infrastructure. Nowadays, European savings banks have kept their focus on retail banking: payments, savings products, credits and insurances for individuals or small and medium-sized enterprises. Apart from this retail focus, they also differ from commercial banks by their broadly decentralised distribution network, providing local and regional outreach and by their socially responsible approach to business and society.
Building societies and Landesbanks: conduct retail banking.
Ethical banks: banks that prioritize the transparency of all operations and make only what they consider to be socially-responsible investments.

Types of investment banks

Investment banks "underwrite" (guarantee the sale of) stock and bond issues, trade for their own accounts, make markets, and advise corporations on capital markets activities such as mergers and acquisitions.
Merchant banks were traditionally banks which engaged in trade financing. The modern definition, however, refers to banks which provide capital to firms in the form of shares rather than loans. Unlike Venture capital firms, they tend not to invest in new companies.

Both combined

Universal banks, more commonly known as a financial services company, engage in several of these activities. For example, First Bank (a very large bank) is involved in commercial and retail lending, and its subsidiaries in tax-havens offer offshore banking services to customers in other countries. Other large financial institutions are similarly diversified and engage in multiple activities. In Europe and Asia, big banks are very diversified groups that, among other services, also distribute insurance, hence the term bancassurance is the term used to describe the sale of insurance products in a bank. The word is a combination of "banque or bank" and "assurance" signifying that both banking and insurance are provided by the same corporate entity.

Other types of banks Islamic banking

Islamic banks adhere to the concepts of Sharia. Islamic banking revolves around several well established concepts which are based on Islamic canons. Since the concept of interest is forbidden in Islam, all banking activities must avoid interest. Instead of interest, the bank earns profit (mark-up) and fees on financing facilities that it extends to the customers. Also, deposit makers earn a share of the bank’s profit as opposed to a predetermined interest.

Florentine banking — The Medicis and Pittis among others
Banknotes — Introduction of paper money
Bank of Amsterdam
Bank of Sweden — The rise of the national banks
Bank of England — The evolution of modern central banking policies
Bank of America — The invention of centralized check and payment processing technology
Swiss bank
United States Banking
History of Money and Banking in the United States by Murray N. Rothbard.

Imperial Bank of Persia — History of banking in the Middle-East
For Thomas Aquinas' discussion of usury, see Thought of Thomas Aquinas Part I